Dogs, coyotes and raccoons are perfectly capable of ripping chickenwire apart to get to the meal inside.

Whether they *will* or not depends on whether one happens to stroll past your chicken pen while the chickens are outside; and depends on how hungry the predator is; and depends on a whole bunch of general 'luck' type factors.

But people DO sometimes lose chickens protected only by chicken wire. And once a predator gets in and has one meal, it's quite likely to be persistantly back for more, even when you beef up your fence.

So it depends on what your attitude is to this sort of risk. (And whehter they'll only be out at midday, versus dusk/dawn or night).

I've been planning my coop run with hubby's help, and he bought 2 big rolls of chicken wire, much to my disappointment, because of the lower price. I kept on reading him posts off BYC, and yesterday he let me buy 2 rolls of hardware cloth instead. I plan to use the 4' high hardware cloth below ground and up about 3' and then use the chicken wire for the top half and maybe to cover the run. Will this be enough to keep out the foxes, dogs, weasels, etc.? I was especially worried that weasels could get in. Do they climb or dig at ground level to get in?